Yum! Brands Annual World Hunger Relief Campaign Builds More Awareness and Engagement Than Ever to Help Stop World Hunger
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Yum! Brands Annual World Hunger Relief Campaign Builds More Awareness and Engagement Than Ever to Help Stop World Hunger

Five Million Volunteer Hours and $17.5 Million in Overall Donations and Still Counting

Effort Will Help United Nations World Food Programme and Other Hunger Relief Agencies Provide More Than 70 Million Meals, Saving More Than 1.8 Million Lives

Louisville, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) annual World Hunger Relief campaign to help stop world hunger has created even more global awareness, deeper engagement and volunteerism and increased donations to benefit the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and other hunger relief agencies.

As the world's largest volunteer movement and private sector effort to combat hunger for the second year, more than 1.4 million employees, franchisees and their families across nearly 36,000 KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's and A&W Restaurants in more than 100 countries volunteered approximately five million volunteer hours to aid hunger relief efforts in communities worldwide. The month-long effort has raised more than $17.5 million in overall donations to date and counting for WFP and other hunger relief agencies.

Global hunger has reached epic proportions – reaching nearly 1 billion people – due to the convergence of higher commodity and global food prices; increased competition for products that produce energy; severe droughts and floods due to climate change and increasing demand from growing economies in Asia and South America.

"Global hunger is a huge problem and has become worse with nearly 925 million people starving and going to bed hungry every day," said David Novak, Chairman and CEO, Yum! Brands, Inc. "That's why we are so inspired and more determined than ever to be the leader in wiping out hunger."

"I'm incredibly proud of the overwhelming outpouring of support, volunteerism and generosity from our employees, franchisees, their families and our customers around the globe to make this year's World Hunger Relief campaign an even greater success than last year," said Novak. "Through our efforts, we will provide more than 70 million meals and save the lives of more than 1.8 million people, moving them from hunger to hope."

Officials from WFP, the world's frontline agency in the fight against hunger, are determining specifics on how and where their funds will be used, but have already earmarked one million dollars to provide emergency aid to hurricane victims in Haiti. The Yum! Foundation is covering WFP's administrative fee so that funds collected from customers and employees will go directly toward feeding people. Funds raised for WFP go directly to the areas of greatest need, feeding poor school children in the developing world and helping villages become self-sustainable. Every U.S. dollar raised during World Hunger Relief 2008 provides four meals for hungry children all over the world.

In its second year, Yum's World Hunger Relief campaign has leveraged the power of its global system. Here are the highlights:

  • At the Clinton Global Initiative this past September, Novak announced Yum's commitment to raise and donate $80 million over the next five years to help WFP and others provide 200 million meals for hungry school children in developing countries; donate 20 million hours of hunger relief volunteer service in the communities in which it operates; $200 million worth of its prepared food to hunger agencies in the U.S. and use the company's marketing clout to generate awareness of the hunger problem.
  • Yum! generated the equivalent of nearly $50 million in awareness of the hunger issue through television and print advertising, public service announcements, public relations, web-based communications and in-restaurant posters and signage. In addition, the company leveraged the power of the Internet and social media to reach millions of people through the www.fromhungertohope.com website and other on-line activity such as Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, MySpace, ThinkMTV, YouTube and Flickr.
  • Mariah Carey was featured in World Hunger Relief restaurant posters as Hunger Ambassador and customers who donated to the campaign at one of Yum's restaurants received a free download of her song "Love Story" from her latest album E=MC2.
  • Celebrities from around the world volunteered to help Yum! and its brands rally people to action. In the U.S., Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Roy Williams worked at a Pizza Hut for one day and issued a challenge to players in three cities to see who could raise the most money for hunger relief. Heidi and Spencer of MTV's hit reality show "The Hills" volunteered their time and money with Taco Bell employees at a California food shelter. Muhammad Ali's wife, Lonnie Ali, provided the voiceovers for campaign PSAs and commercials. In China, well-known singer and actress Ruby Lin drew throngs of fans and contributors when she spent time working behind the counter at a KFC helping to raise money.
  • More than 1.4 million employees and franchisees around the world volunteered approximately five million volunteer hours at hunger relief agencies, food banks, soup kitchens and fundraisers. Employees from the U.S. to Canada to Europe to South Africa to China to Australia organized everything from car washes to auction sales to sponsored walks and bike races among other things all to raise awareness and donations to support WFP and other hunger relief agencies. (For additional stories, visit www.fromhungertohope.com.)

Yum! created the first global hunger relief initiative in 2007 (World Hunger Relief Week). The campaign was an overwhelming success, raising $16 million in one week for WFP and other hunger relief agencies, and creating the world's largest volunteer movement. The funds directed to WFP fed 1.6 million hungry people throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America. One-million company and franchise employees mobilized around the globe generating four million volunteer hours in local communities and raising funds from the more than 115 million customers that visit its restaurants each week.

Yum! and its brands have been committed to fighting hunger for more than a decade by donating more than $46 million of prepared food annually to the underprivileged in the United States. Since the company went public in 1997, it has donated over $500 million of its food to hunger relief agencies in the U.S.

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, is the world's largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants, with nearly 36,000 restaurants in over 100 countries and territories. The company is ranked #253 on the Fortune 500 List, with revenues in excess of $10 billion in 2007. Four of the company's restaurant brands – KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver's – are the global leaders of the chicken, pizza, Mexican-style food and quick-service seafood categories, respectively. Outside the United States, the Yum! Brands system opened about four new restaurants each day of the year, making it the largest retail developer in the world. The company has consistently been recognized for its reward and recognition culture, diversity leadership, community giving, and consistent shareholder returns. Last year, the company launched the world's largest private sector hunger relief effort, in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme and other hunger relief agencies. This effort helped save over 1.6 million people from starvation in remote corners of the world, where hunger is most prevalent.

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency and the United Nations frontline agency for hunger solutions. This year, WFP plans to feed around 90 million people in 80 countries.

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